34 - Social And Cultural Developments, 1945-64 Flashcards
What standards were there very little improvement of in social life under Stalin?
Living standards
What 2 areas remained few, poor and in short supply during social life under Stalin?
Consumer goods
Housing
How many working hours per day remained the norm within social life under Stalin?
12 hours a day
How much smaller was the pay of a Kolkhoz worker compared to a factory worker?
1/6 smaller
What was Stalin determined to make Soviet culture superior to? What did this anti-Westernism shape in Russia’s art?
Liberal Western culture
Policy
What values were workers and artists attacked for showing?
“Bourgoisie”, non-Soviet values
What ideology was Khrushchev a “true believer” in? What was he determined to show?
Communism
It could achieve a better life for people
What 2 areas did Khrushchev give priority to? Why did he especially do this?
Consumer goods
Housing
To show the Soviet Union compared with the West
What 2 consumer goods began appearing in Russian homes?
Fridges
TVs
Why were wage differences reduced? What wage was increased?
To ease the gulf between managers and workers
Minimum wage
What 3 groups did pensions expand to?
Elderly
Sick
Disabled
For what 2 reasons was pension expansion important?
Many were permanently injured from war
There were many one-parent families
What construction increased? How many people moved into homes from 1956-65?
Housing construction
108 million
What was an issue with the quality of housing construction? Why did this still change lives?
They were poorly made
People no longer shared accommodation
What 3 groups and facilities increased in society?
Doctors
Hospitals
Students in higher education
Who still only received privileges? What are 3 things they got access to?
Senior party officials
Special healthcare
Holidays
Cars
What propaganda was stepped up? How many of all religious places of worship had been closed down?
Anti-religious propaganda
3/4
What nationalities came under more control from Moscow? Who were the top jobs reserved for?
Non-Russian nationalities
Russians
From where did it become easier to access news from? Where did many people tune into for trustworthy news despite its proscribition?
The West
Foreign radio stations
What book was published in 1962? Who authored it?
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
How long had Solzhenitsyn spent in a labour camp? Why did his book strike a chord with those who were recently released from camps?
8 years
It was a fictional account of his own experiences
How many copies of Denisovich were sold in 6 months?
A million
Who authored Dr Zhivago? Why didn’t it pass the censors?
Boris Pasternak
It was critical of the October Revolution
When was Dr Zhivago published abroad? What Prize did Pasternak gain, but not allowed to accept?
1957
Nobel Prize
What book circulated illegally around the Soviet Union? How many attended the author’s funeral in 1960?
Dr Zhivago - Pasternak
Thousands
To whom was the Soviet Union now open to?
Western tourists
What Festival did Moscow host in 1957? How many people attended from 131 different countries?
World Festival of Youth
34,000
What was one aim of the World Festival of Youth? What were the youth won over by that the foreigners brought over?
To win over the youth with the Soviet way of life
The Western way of life - jeans and jazz
Why was Western culture more appealing than Soviet culture?
It wasn’t as conformist as Komsomol
Why was Khrushchev particularly keen to engage young people? What was the most ambitious idea he came up with?
To reawaken the enthusiasm of the early Revolution years
Mobilising the youth into the Virgin Lands scheme
What does Historian Orlando Figes say the regime could no longer count on?
“It could no longer count on fear”
What does Historian Martin Sixsmith say the target of “beating the Americans” was intended to do?
“The target of ‘beating the Americans’ was intended to boost production”
